


Tampons

by bilgegungoren00



Category: Supergirl (TV 2015)
Genre: AU, Angst, Angst and Fluff, Angst with a Happy Ending, Established Relationship, F/M, Fluff, Humans AU, Tampons, in love puppies, mini-freak out, mini-trauma, scared!Kara, supportive boyfriend!Mon-El
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2018-02-09
Updated: 2018-02-09
Packaged: 2019-03-16 00:39:12
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 3,289
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/13624872
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/bilgegungoren00/pseuds/bilgegungoren00
Summary: She’d actually loved Mon-El in a way that she never loved James. She didn’t want to ruin their relationship with this. He was much too precious.Or, Kara is worried about asking for tampons from her boyfriend, Mon-El.





	Tampons

**Author's Note:**

> sooooo i don't know where this one-shot came from, but i really wanted to write something sweet after the last few episodes of the show (i don't even want to think about that) and this idea popped into my mind. also, it's around 1 a.m. here, so if there are any mistakes in the story i apologize in hindsight, as it is unbetaed. 
> 
> anyway, hope you like it! :)

Kara felt so, _so_ stupid as she sat in her bathtub, her phone clutched tightly in her hand. She could barely feel the scaldingly hot water surrounding her, or the ache in her stomach—well, okay, she could feel the ache in her stomach a little bit, but it was overwhelmed by her thundering heart and emotional sickness. She should’ve known this would happen. She should’ve seen it coming. She just… She’d just been so stressed the previous week, rushing around so much that it had completely escaped her mind that…her period was approaching.

It didn’t help that it had happened a couple of days earlier…or that she didn’t have any tampons left in the house. Hence why she was sitting in the bathtub. It was either that, or tucking a bunch of toilet paper in her underwear, which she _so_ did not want right now. Worse yet, she also couldn’t go out in this position to buy tampons for herself.

She felt tears filling her eyes. Why did this have to happen to her right now? When there was literally no one that could help her? She was away from her hometown for college, which meant her sister and parents were a no go, if she didn’t want them to travel a couple of hours just to bring her tampons. Her closest friends were out of town for vacation, including her roommate, which meant she also couldn’t call them. And because she just recently moved into this apartment, she knew none of her neighbors, and she really didn’t want to meet any of them by asking for _tampons._

 _There is someone you can call,_ her brain reminded her, but she quickly dismissed that voice. She didn’t even want to consider that possibility. No way in hell she was asking another boyfriend to buy her tampons. Sure, Mon-El was supposed to be coming to her house in about ten minutes, which made him the perfect candidate to get the tampons, but she _couldn’t_ do it. She wouldn’t make the same mistake again. She still remembered what happened two years ago, and she wasn’t about to go through the same embarrassment.

She still remembered what James, her then-boyfriend, now ex, told her when she asked him to grab tampons. The situation wasn’t even this serious then; it was just that James was already visiting her— _just as Mon-El is visiting now,_ her brain very unhelpfully reminded her—and she thought it’d be easier for him to get the tampons instead of bothering someone else. But James’s reaction… _You don’t really expect me to go into the_ ladies section _of the market and actually get tampons, right?_ he’d asked with a mocking laugh. _And besides, don’t you girls know when your periods are? Shouldn’t you have gotten it yourself if you knew it was coming? I’m not about to take care of your personal girl problems, Kara._ Hot tears had spilled down her cheeks with those words, embarrassment and disappointment weighing on her, and she swore then and there that she’d never ask another boyfriend to buy her tampons again. But that day she was lucky. That day, her roommate was actually close by, and she’d easily brought her tampons.

Now, though…

She bit her lip harshly and shook her head. No, _no,_ she wasn’t calling Mon-El. She had to find a way to handle this situation herself. She’d gotten through worse. She wasn’t about to embarrass herself to her boyfriend _again._ And she’d actually _loved_ Mon-El in a way that she never loved James. She didn’t want to ruin their relationship with this. He was much too precious. Wasn’t the fight she had with James that day was what made their relationship go downhill? She couldn’t take the risk with Mon-El.

Yet even as she tried to convince herself of that, tears were rolling down her cheeks, and the only thing keeping her from sobbing was how harshly she was biting the inside of her cheek. Because she knew she had no choice. She had to call Mon-El, she had to ask for the tampons, if she didn’t want to sit in this bathtub for the next four days. She had _no choice,_ and that was maybe the worst part.

She opened her contacts for what felt like the hundredth time, her finger hovering over Mon-El’s number— _Babe,_ as she saved him—as she hesitated. Yet this time, she actually managed to press on his name and bring the phone to her ear.

He answered way too early for her to end the call. “Hey, babe!” His voice sounded so happy that for a moment Kara couldn’t say anything, not wanting to ruin his happiness. He continued talking anyway. “I know I’m running a bit late coming there, but I wanted to get you some potstickers and the place near your house was closed so I had to make a little detour. I’ll be there in fifteen minutes—“

“Mon-El?” she whispered, cutting his words. She was afraid that if she stayed quiet any more, she wouldn’t be able to speak at all. He stopped immediately anyway, probably hearing her tearful voice. Damn, why couldn’t she just stop her tears?

“Kara? You okay?” he asked, concern evident in his voice. She had to gulp several times and hold onto the side of the bathtub to answer his question.

“Yeah, I just… I need you to get something for me. If that’s… If that’s okay. You can say no, I won’t be mad, I just—“

“Kara, you’re scaring me right now. You aren’t injured or anything, right?” His concern was so evident in his voice that it brought more tears to Kara’s eyes, mostly because she _knew_ it would be replaced with anger after her request.

“No, I just… I just need…” _Tampons,_ she thought. _Just say the word, Kara. Tampons. It shouldn’t be this hard. It’s just a normal thing that happens each month. You shouldn’t be this embarrassed about it._ Yet thinking that was much easier than actually believing it.

“Hey, you can ask me anything, okay?” Mon-El’s soft, comforting voice took her out of her thoughts. “If you need anything, just tell me, and I’ll get it.” She didn’t know what it was, his concern or his softness, but she finally managed to open her mouth.

“Tampons.”

“What?”

“Can you… Can you get me tampons?” She shut her eyes, waiting for Mon-El’s response. Or at least she wanted to, but her brain was freaking out so much that the next words just spilled out of her mouth, trying to excuse her request. “I just… My period started a bit early and I didn’t realize I didn’t have tampons at home, and there’s no one that can get them for me, and I wouldn’t have asked it if there was someone else anyway, and you can say no—“ She stopped when she heard Mon-El’s laugh. _What?_

“Kara, of course I’ll get you tampons. You don’t need to worry about it.” Kara felt herself freeze inside the tub, staring at the wall blankly. _No. This isn’t how this goes. This isn’t how it’s supposed to go._ Mon-El should’ve gotten angry. He…

“You…will?” she asked, her voice thin and vulnerable. Mon-El laughed again.

“It’s just tampons, not a nuclear bomb. Was that really what you were worrying about?”

“I…” Kara was at a loss of words, her heart thundering in her chest, with both relief and fear. She still couldn’t process the situation entirely.

“Hey, you don’t need to worry about anything like that, okay? If there’s something wrong, you cab just tell me about it, and I’ll take care of it. No matter what. Okay, babe? I don’t want you to ever stress about that stuff again.” Kara could only absentmindedly not.

“Okay,” she muttered, still in shock, still not able to process what he was saying.

“Good. Good. Just tell me the brand you need, and I’ll be there as quickly as I can, okay? Just hang on for a couple more minutes.”

“Okay,” she whispered again, quickly telling him the brand. She could feel Mon-El’s smile even through the phone.

“I love you.” That was the last thing he said before he ended the call, as if he knew that she needed to hear it. She pulled the phone away from her ear, staring at it for a couple of seconds. Tears that had left her with shock started filling her eyes all over again.

 _He was just being nice,_ the fearful part of her brain couldn’t help thinking. _He just heard that I was sad and he was trying to make me feel better. He’s going to be angry when he gets home. We’ll get into a big fight, he’ll hate me for all my problems, and he’ll break up with me. It’s the way it goes._

She barely had time to drop the phone to her bathroom floor instead of into the water before sobs finally escaped her mouth.

* * *

Mon-El knew, the moment he heard Kara crying on the other side of the phone, that she wasn’t okay. Not that she never cried, but she was a really strong and confident woman who _very frequently_ spoke her mind without caring about what others thought, and he never imagined that she’d be _concerned_ about asking something as simple as tampons. He would’ve never guessed that she’d be _crying_ over it. Now it might be about just the general heightened emotions of having her period, but somehow Mon-El doubted that. He’d _seen_ her on her period, and she’d never been this bad.

This was about something else. This was about something more serious.

He just…couldn’t think of what that serious thing could be. It was just her _period,_ a normal situation that women had monthly. It wasn’t embarrassing or anything like that. Emotional, yes, but nothing to be afraid of. She shouldn’t be afraid or embarrassed to talk about it, especially with him, as her boyfriend and the person she could lean on whenever she needed it. He hoped she knew that, too. That she could talk to him about everything.

Either way, he was about to find out what \ was going on. He took out his spare key in front of Kara’s door, thinking she wouldn’t be able to open it for him. He’d been staying here so frequently that Kara insisted that he got a key as well, just in case of an emergency.

An emergency…like this one.

He walked in, looking inside the quiet house, before locking the door behind him. “Kara?” he called for her, putting aside the package of potstickers and the bag of snacks he’d gotten when he found out that she was on her period. There were chocolate, Oreos—Kara was an absolute sucker for Oreos—and even gummy bears and some candies. He assumed Kara might need all of that.

“Bathroom.” He looked up when he heard Kara’s voice. Grabbing the tampon package, he made his way to the bathroom quickly, knocking the door before he entered. He had held his breath, afraid of what he was going to find…and he was significantly relieved when he found her sitting in the bathtub under bubbly water. She had her legs pulled to her chest, her arms wrapped around them, and her chin resting on her knees, and yes, she looked more stressed than normal, but at least she wasn’t injured or anything.

Yet all that relief immediately disappeared when Kara actually looked up, only for him to see that she’d been crying. She’d _actually_ been crying, and while she might not be injured, that didn’t mean she was _okay._

He forced a soothing smile on his face as he walked into the bathroom, holding up the tampon package. “I got you tampons,” he announced. Her eyes flickered to the tampon package. As he tentatively stepped towards the bathtub, he waited for her to be relieved, to thank him, to grab the package and did whatever she needed to do. Yet instead she just buried her face in her knees all over again, silent sobs shaking her body.

Mon-El felt his heart crack as he put the tampons aside. “Hey,” he said, rushing to her side. “Hey, hey, hey, baby.” He knelt next to the tub and reached up to push her hair away from her face. “Kara. Please don’t cry. I hate to see you cry. Look, everything is okay. I’m here now, I got the tampons—“

“I embarrassed you.” He stopped with her words, knitting his brows together.

“What?” he asked, needing to make sure he heard her right. She sniffed and repeated herself, not even looking at him, as if she couldn’t say the words while facing him.

“I embarrassed y-you. Because of me, you h-had to ge-get tampons from a market. I forced you into that.” Mon-El arched his brow. He was just about to ask why the hell would that be embarrassing when he stopped, the truth hitting him in the head. Kara had been _crying_ when she called him to ask for tampons, and she kept _repeating_ that he could say no, that it was okay if he didn’t do what she asked. And now, she’d been crying, claiming that she embarrassed him… There was only one explanation for that. Someone must’ve made her think that it was embarrassing to ask for tampons from your boyfriend. So much so that she was _traumatized_ by it, thinking that she somehow failed him, when it couldn’t have been closer to the truth.

“Kara, what makes you think that I’d be embarrassed about that?” he asked, trying to stay calm as she obviously needed something stable to hold onto. He lightly continued to stroke her hair as he waited for her answer.

“That’s what… That’s what James said when I asked him for it.” _James?_ Mon-El thought. _Kara’s ex-boyfriend?_ “He said that it was…it was embarrassing for a man to buy tampons. He said that I was the woman, and I should be able to handle my own ‘womanly problems’ by myself. He said if my period was close I should’ve made sure I had tampons, and he shouldn’t have to be the one to take care of that.” She stopped for a second there, and even then Mon-El felt anger boiling in his stomach. _That son of a bitch,_ he couldn’t help thinking. He’d always known James didn’t treat Kara well, yet he never knew the details, and hearing this…

James was wrong. So wrong. First of all, it wasn’t embarrassing _at all_ for a man to buy tampons. Why would it be? Periods were a natural part of life for women, and they needed tampons every now and then. It didn’t diminish men’s masculinity to buy them or made them less of a man. In fact, Mon-El would argue that a real man _would_ buy tampons for their partner when they needed it, taking care of his loved ones and providing them their needs.

Second of all, _why the hell_ would Kara need to handle any problem by herself when she had a boyfriend? A relationship meant mutual support, understanding, and yes, help. It required you to help your partner when they were in need or they had a problem, it required you to listen to them and support them, in a way that they knew they could trust you and lean on you. _That_ was what a relationship meant. And the problems that were womanly or personal weren’t an exception to that. Kara should be able to ask for his help whenever and wherever, whatever she needed.

And third of all… Didn’t James know just how easy it was to forget something? Hell, sometimes Mon-El came home and got into the shower, only to realize that he was out of shampoo. Or wanted to shave, only to realize he was out of shaving-cream. It was all too natural for Kara to forget that she was out of tampons when she didn’t need them. And it wasn’t like she could go and get them once her period started. He could just go get shampoo or shaving-cream when he needed it, but the same didn’t apply to tampons. James should’ve been all too glad to help her in that emergency situation instead of scolding her for it.

He was prepared to tell all of that to Kara, but he must’ve stayed silent for so long that she continued. “We had a big fight that night, after I asked him to get the tampons,” she whispered, tightening her arms around herself. “And our relationship never recovered. And I… I don’t want that to happen to us. I know I messed up, I know I—“

“I’m gonna stop you right there,” Mon-El said, confidently but also softly. He moved his hand to her chin and turned her face towards his, so that she could see the honesty in his eyes. He offered her a small smile. “You didn’t mess up anything. You didn’t embarrass me. There’s nothing embarrassing about buying tampons, Kara.”

“But you’re a guy—“

“Any guy that claims buying tampons make them less of a man is just a coward and a misogynist. For me, he’s nothing but an insecure boy who somehow needs to prove his masculinity to others to believe in it himself.” Kara was staring at him with wide eyes and parted lips. He continued when he didn’t say anything. “And Kara, if you can’t lean on me when you have a problem, if you can’t trust me when you need something, then what kind of a relationship is this? You should be able to talk to me and ask me for help in _any_ situation.

“But moreover, something as simple as tampons isn’t going to ruin our relationship. I love you, Kara. That means I’m going to stand by you, through thin and thick, through sickness and health, no matter what. You have to do something pretty big to ruin this relationship. Okay? Don’t you worry your pretty little mind about that.” He caressed her hair and leaned forward to press a kiss to her forehead. She blinked a couple of times in shock, yet finally, a small smile pulled her lips.

“Did you just quote Taylor Swift to me?” she asked jokingly. Mon-El shrugged.

“Well, she definitely knows how to write mean love songs.” Kara laughed at him before nodding, finally reaching up to take his hand in hers. Her eyes were emotional and tearful again, but this time it was in a good way.

“Thank you.” She laced her fingers through his. He squeezed her hand back.

“Always, princess.” He leaned in again, this time planting a small kiss on her lips. “Now,” he said when he pulled back, “why don’t you take care of what you need to take care of, and then we can cuddle on the couch and watch some ridiculous reality show? If I remember correctly, there was Bachelor today. I also bought a bunch of snacks, so…” Kara pursed her lips.

“You’re amazing,” she said, lightly stroking his cheek. “You’re incredible. You’re the best. And… Did I mention, you’re amazing?”

“You can say it again. I don’t mind.” Kara rolled her eyes, yet she didn’t say anything. He stood up, ready to leave the bathroom to give her some privacy, when her voice stopped him.

“Mon-El?”

“Hm?”

“I love you, too.” She smiled at him in her carefree and genuine way, and Mon-El couldn’t help feeling proud that he managed to make her smile like that even when she felt down. He couldn’t help smiling back just as widely and genuinely.


End file.
